Equipment that sits idle fails differently from equipment that runs every day. An ice machine left for weeks with water in it grows slime. Drain lines dry out or clog. And a walk-in that’s been switched off for a month may not start back up, which you don’t want to find out the morning of a funeral lunch.
Turn things on a few days early
If your kitchen equipment is usually off, turn it on several days before a big event and check each box with a thermometer. An empty walk-in or reach-in that’s working should get down to 41 F or below by that evening with the door shut. If it’s still warm the next day, call then, while there’s time to get a part. For the ice machine, run a cleaning cycle and throw out the first few batches. The ice machine cleaning guide has the steps.
If the equipment stays on all the time, have someone open each door and glance at the thermometer once a week.
When outside caterers use your kitchen, tape a note to the walk-in asking them to keep the door closed and not to load pans of hot food straight in. A pan of hot food warms up everything stored around it.
Donated and older units
Church kitchens end up with a lot of donated equipment. Some of it’s in great shape. Some is old enough to run on R-22, a refrigerant the US stopped producing in 2020, and that makes it expensive to recharge. Before putting money into an old unit, get a repair price and a replacement price so your trustees or facilities committee can compare them. We go through that decision in repair or replace, and if it’s the walk-in giving you trouble, start with walk-in cooler repair.
